


Cat Hair Gets Everywhere

by EzzyAlpha



Series: 100 Themes Challenge [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Catboys & Catgirls, Dark Magic, Demons, F/F, Failed Attempts at Resurrection, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Parent/Child Incest, dark rituals, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 11:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/900023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzzyAlpha/pseuds/EzzyAlpha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roxy's attempts to resurrect her mother are thwarted by her own inexperience and cat hair that got into the mixture necessary for the ritual. Instead of her mother, Roxy gets a demon cat girl, who now owns her soul.</p>
<p>[100 Themes Challenge: 23 - Failure]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cat Hair Gets Everywhere

Roxy coughs up brimstone smoke and rubs at her eyes. Everything smells like hell or at least the popular depiction of it. It’s a deep acrid smell mixed with burning, like walking in the woods after a forest fire or particularly shitty barbecue. She feels softness falling on her skin and when she tries to rub it away, it smears. She doesn’t dare to open her eyes because she knows she failed, and she knows there is something in the room with her. She can hear it, soft padding around her, an occasional swish of the air near her head. There’s the faint smell of her mother’s perfume, rose cologne, mixed with cigarettes and vodka, and for a brief moment, Roxy wonders that maybe she didn’t fail.

“Open your eyes.”

Roxy’s shoulders drop and she opens her eyes, not bothering to say a word even as she sees the girl in front of her.

She failed. Perhaps not completely, but she did.

“You failed.”

“I know.”

“You’re not a witch, no matter how much you try to convince yourself you can be as good as your mother, if you just try.”

“Ouch. Who are you, then?”

She flicks her tail around and Roxy watches, mesmerized. Her eyes slowly travel back to the girls face, and then, to the pair of oversized cat ears on her head, turned to the sides, jutting out, dusky fading into the soft platinum of her hair. For a moment, Roxy considers she looks like her mother, when she was Roxy’s age, besides the feline attributes. Of note are her eyes, impossibly vivid violet. They too resemble a cat’s, and as this thought crosses Roxy’s mind, the pupils reduce to slits.

“The demon of your bad decisions. I came to take your soul.”

“What, right now? That’s kinda inconvenient.”

The demon blinks, looking confused, her dark eyebrows raising, ears flickering forward.

“No, I don’t think it has to be right now.”

“So, what went wrong?”

She swishes her tail again and crosses her arms over her chest.

“You tried to bring back the dead when you haven’t even spoken to the dark. You expected your readings, the books you’ve poured over, your technique to be enough. You are not a witch.”

She pauses, looking at the ceiling.

“And you got cat hair in the mixture. You idiot.”

Roxy gets up and moves towards her. She’s short, maybe over a foot shorter than Roxy.

“What’s your name?”

The demon takes a step back, ears returning to jutting to the sides.

“I don’t have one. I was technically born ten minutes ago, although my conscience is millennial, the product of every demon past and the soul of your mother.”

Roxy pauses.

“I think I’ll call you Rose, then.”

The demon quirks a brow.

“I don’t think you understand the severity of the situation.”

“Why are you naked, though?”

Rose pauses and looks down at herself. When she looks up at Roxy, her expression is even but the blush across her face betrays her.

“That’s just how it works.”

“If I had succeed in resurrecting my mother, would she be naked too?”

“You are a very strange woman.”

Roxy steps forward again and Rose is backed against the wall of the decaying attic. Roxy’s hands rest on the top of her head, her fingers loosely curling around her ears, and she lightly rubs at them.

“You’re cute.”

-

Her eyes are big and shining and violet, pupils swollen, and right on Roxy’s face as she stirs from sleep. Her first reaction is to loosely drape her arms around Rose’s waist, but she shakes her off, ears flattened back, and sits on the armchair, the only other place besides the bed where you can actually sit on. Roxy’s room is full of chairs, but they’re broken or covered in stuff or broken and covered in stuff. Rose props her head up, chin on the palm of her hand. She’s wearing an old Squiddles t-shirt from when Roxy was younger, because it was the only thing that wasn’t too big on her, and yoga shorts. She inspects Roxy.

“How long was I out?” Roxy swings her legs out the bed, inspecting the scratches along them “Hey, was this you.”

“Your soul is mine. Also, you were asleep for twelve hours, it’s 4 am.”

Roxy vaguely points to her legs.

“This isn’t my soul.”

“I’m trying to drive you insane, so you will commit suicide.”

There’s a pause.

Roxy gets up and motions for Rose to follow her. Rose quirks a brow, ears facing forward, but gets up and wanders behind her in the empty halls, tail swishing from side to side. Occasionally she will lean over to breathe down Roxy’s neck, scrape her teeth down her jugular.

“Stop that, it tickles.”

Rose is mildly offended and steps back.

The kitchen is barely lit, three out of the four bulbs in the ceiling lamp are broken, jagged little edges like icicles. Rose looks up and wonders if that’s even safe, she should at least take the bulbs out, then she realizes what she’s doing and has to remind herself that she’s here for Roxy’s soul. Rose is not her mother and she does not care about her.

Rose looks back down at Roxy and she’s holding a can of cat food.

“I will not eat that.”

Roxy blinks a few times.

“Oh, okay. What will you eat?”

“I won’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t.”

“You don’t?”

“I don’t.”

“Well, you don’t or you can’t?”

Rose pauses and hums thoughtfully.

“I don’t know.”

Roxy smiles.

“We can figure that out.”

She looks over Rose, concern spreading on her face.

“You look like you could use a meal.”

Rose’s eyebrows raise, then fall, and she scowls, the corners of her mouth tight, but her ears remain firmly facing forward.

“Stop being concerned over me, I’m haunting you.”

Roxy reaches out to ruffle Rose’s hair and one ear droops to the side.

“Better haunted than alone.”

Dinner is tuna casserole, extra tuna.

-

The forest is wide and long and impossibly big.

“So, did you actually, exist in some way, before I fucked up?”

Rose looks down at Roxy, who’s attempting to climb the tree. Rose spreads herself on the branch, lying stomach down, and idly scratches at the bark.

“I suppose I did, in some way.”

“Do you remember anything?”

Roxy manages to get a couple of feet high before she starts sliding down.

“Not really.”

“I want to show you the world, then.”

Rose looks down with interest, ears perked, but fakes annoyance as best as possible. Roxy has managed to sit on a low branch and smiles up at her.

“The world doesn’t seem like such a great place, considering how many of you just want to escape it.”

Roxy’s shoulders drop, along with the smile on her face.

“The world is great. It’s just hard to see sometimes.”

Rose looks away. She hates the hope in her eyes.

“Are you going to say you’re happy? Were you happy, you wouldn’t be trying to bring back what should be gone.”

“I wasn’t happy. I am now.”

“You are an idiot.”

There’s the faint sound of Roxy falling on her back, and Rose sighs.

-

Rose sits between Roxy’s knees and lets her play with her hair because she’s tired of telling her to stop, and it’s not like it’s a big deal.

Besides, the documentary running on TV takes up all of her interest.

“Octopus.”

Roxy hums, her fingers running through Rose’s short hair, occasionally reaching up to rub at her ears. Rose leans her head back to look at Roxy.

“That is an octopus.”

Roxy looks her over, one eyebrow quirked as a silent question.

“I like it.” mutters Rose, looking away. “Also, it looks vaguely delicious.”

Roxy leans back on the couch, smiling softly.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying this.”

“I am not.” says Rose, tensing up. “I have simply decided that given you are batshit insane already, and far too stupid to kill yourself, that I will simply wait for your demise without concerning myself.”

Roxy’s hands are soft on Rose’s hair and she relaxes, leaning back.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Want me to find you an octopus somewhere? For dinner or, a pet, I guess. I’m not sure if you can actually keep an octopus as a pet.”

There is a long pause. Rose’s eyes are set on the screen, but she’s not paying attention.

“If you want to.” she says at last, and Roxy reaches up to rub her ears again.

Rose sighs and leans back, before blinking unsurely.

“Did you...Tie something...”

She reaches up to look at the nearest mirror.

“Is that a bow.”

-

Rose tugs and fidgets with the hairband right in front of her ears. She tilts her head side to side, watching her reflection.

“Why not?” she mutters, tugging once more and turning back to look at Roxy “Also, is this straight?”

“Because it’s a pain in the ass to keep and I have no fucking place for a 125 gallon tank.” Roxy looks back, a smirk soon spreading across her face.

“You look great.”

Rose looks back at the mirror.

“I got some octopus sushi though.” says Roxy, looking over the box before setting it on the table. She continues to unpack the groceries. The soft padding behind her and the sound of rustling plastic tells her Rose is already eating.

There is chewing, a long pause and the sound of the box being placed back on the table. Roxy chuckles.

“You didn’t like it, did you?”

“Your human culinary is atrocious as always.”

Roxy looks back, smiling. Rose sighs and lets her head drop, ears drooping.

“It’s chewy and gross.”

Roxy laughs and Rose can feel her face flush. Roxy walks to the table and picks up one of the pieces, popping it into her mouth.

“It’s not that bad.” she says, chewing contently. Rose leans on the table, and she wants to apologize for making her buy it, but she doesn’t, because she’s a demon. Demons don’t care for humans.

-

“How much of you is human?”

Rose freezes. She clasps the sheets of her makeshift bed, a mattress on the floor of Roxy’s room. Her ears flatten against her head.

She closes her eyes, breathing quietly. Maybe Roxy will think she is sleeping.

There is a long pause, before Rose hears Roxy’s bed squeak, Roxy’s presence hovering above her. Rose does her best to relax and appear slumbering. She feels Roxy’s lips on her temple but it doesn’t make her tense up. Instead, she relaxes at last, going limp, her fingers no longer digging into the sheets and her ears shifting forward.

The room is still silent, until Roxy’s soft snoring is heard. Rose rolls to her back and sits up, looking at Roxy’s sleeping form. Her back is turned to her, so Rose can’t see her face, but she knows she doesn’t sleep well. There’s flashes of pain in her expression all through the night. Rose watches the soft movement as she breathes, looks over the soft curve of her neck, down to the bit of back visible because her shirt has ridden up.

Rose crawls onto the bed and lies down, turned towards the wall, her back almost touching Roxy’s but she doesn’t dare to.

“I don’t know.” she whispers, closing her eyes.

When Roxy wakes up in the morning, Rose is back in her own bed, but Roxy knows.

-

Rose’s eyes are focused on the window. Roxy flicks the flashlight off and Rose’s pupils go wide. Roxy giggles because she finds it adorable and flicks it on, watching her eyes slit.

Rose looks back at Roxy for a second but soon returns her gaze to the window.

“Do you find it weird?” asks Roxy, turning off the flashlight and smiling at her eyes “The snow, that is?”

“No.” says Rose, pupils becoming slits as the flashlight shines on her face. “It’s familiar.”

The flashlight goes off but it doesn’t turn back on. Rose looks at Roxy. She’s staring at her with an odd expression on her face. Rose can’t quite place it, but she thinks it’s the sort of expression the humans on those TV shows in another language look like before they start kissing...or crying, she’s not sure.

She cautiously reaches for a tissue box.

“Hey, Rose.”

Rose freezes and looks back at Roxy, sighing when she realizes that look is gone, replaced by a soft smile. There’s some movie playing on TV but neither of them have been paying attention to it.

“Yes?”

“You know why I’m happy now?”

Rose tilts her head curiously. Roxy turns on the flashlight and she winces.

“Because I like you.” sings out Roxy, breaking out into a dumb grin.

Rose doesn’t know how to react and she thinks about kissing her, because she thinks that’s what she’s supposed to do, but ends up just leaning back on the couch, watching her grin and play with the flashlight. She feels weird, sort of like everything she has felt for Roxy before, but a thousand times over.

“Did you feel that way about your mother as well?” she asks. It’s pure curiosity, no anger or teasing or anything else, but Roxy’s expression turns painful and Rose realizes she has made a mistake. But she doesn’t know how to fix it, so she just watches Roxy get up and walk to her room.

-

Rose sleeps in the couch that night, and the few nights afterwards. Roxy doesn’t leave her room, the door locked, and after the third day without seeing her, Rose realizes, to her horror, that she is afraid Roxy has hurt herself. She’s not dead; Rose would know if she was. But Rose is worried, even if she feels ashamed of herself for it, so she climbs a tree by her window and tries to look into her room. All she sees is Roxy’s confused face before the branch snaps.

-

“I didn’t even know demons could get hurt.”

“That makes two of us, then.”

There is a long pause.

“I’m not a full demon, anyway. I’m technically a sort of cambion.”

“Isn’t that what happens when a succubus boinks a random ass woman and she gets knocked up.”

“Not necessari-” Rose hisses as Roxy pulls on the thread, effectively sewing the wound on her head shut. Rose sighs and looks downwards.

“More precisely...I’m the shreds of a human soul, bound with demonic presence in a flesh body.”

Roxy looks her over with concern, wiping away the blood on her forehead.

“You sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That’s because I don’t. All I have is an instinct to take your soul...And whatever pieces I’m getting from your mother’s soul.”

“You’re not my mother.” says Roxy, trying to tuck a loose strand of Rose’s hair only to remember she doesn’t have human ears. Roxy sighs and leans down to gently press her lips to the wound on Rose’s forehead. She leans back smiling.

“What the hell are you going to do with my soul anyway.”

“I don’t know.”

There is a moment of silence.

“I’m sorry.” says Rose, and Roxy freezes.

“Why?”

“Because, I brought up things I shouldn’t have. And because I didn’t disclose my nature to you.”

Roxy leans back and looks her over. She reaches to scratch at her head, between her ears, and she thinks she can hear some purring.

“I’m sorry I shut myself in my room and worried you.”

They look at each other for a moment, and Rose’s heart is doing the weird thing again, and she thinks she might kiss her this time.

But she doesn’t.

-

It’s 3 am, a cold, freezing 3 am and Roxy retches over the toilet bowl, 3 days of barely eating and too much drinking don’t tend to work well for the body. She hasn’t drank this much since before Rose showed up and she’s still wondering how she managed to even stitch her up given how hard her hands were shaking from withdrawing. But taking her to an hospital wasn’t an option.

It’s not that hard to take her out in public, although she prefers to stay home, and as long as she doesn’t move her tail or ears too much, bystanders tend to regard it as fashion statements rather than any sort of paranormal. People are amusing like that. They always think in the easiest way to process.

Now, in a hospital, especially with a head wound...

Roxy sits back and looks up at the ceiling. She wonders if Rose could die and she has to cross the again from her thoughts.

Rose is not her mother.

It’s 3 am, a cold, freezing 3 am, and Rose listens to the bed creak as Roxy lies down. Roxy is not okay and Rose knows that, but she is unsure of what to do. She sits up, looking at Roxy’s back. She’s curled into herself.

“Go back to sleep, Rose.”

Rose jumps slightly, startled. She bites her lip and gets up, crawling onto the bed next to Roxy. Roxy doesn’t say anything but turns back to look at her for a bit. Rose hesitates before slinking her arms around Roxy’s waist. Roxy stays quiet.

“It’s cold.” mutters Rose.

Roxy pulls the blanket over both of them.

-

Rose is definitely purring in Roxy’s arms. She’s sitting on Roxy’s lap, leaning against her. Her tail occasionally swishes and curls loosely around Roxy’s arm. Roxy’s hand is loosely holding onto Rose, on her waist, while her other hand is scratching between her ears.

Roxy smiles faintly.

“You’re happy, aren’t you?” she whispers, shifting to rub at one ear. Rose frowns slightly, more like a pout really, and she looks up at Roxy.

“Are you aiming to embarrass me?”

Roxy rolls her eyes.

“Excuse me miss, I wasn’t aware being happy was such an embarrassing thing. Or, is it just embarrassing because I’m making you happy.”

Rose’s expression softens, ears flickering, and she relaxes against Roxy’s chest.

“This is comfortable.”

A lazy silence spreads through the room, Roxy still scratching idly at Rose’s head.

“I think I’m in love with you.” Rose’s voice is slow and slightly slurred, as she slowly drifts to sleep.

Roxy’s hand slows down and she watches her fall asleep. She shifts to kiss her forehead.

“I love you too.”

-

Rose awakens in their bed, and opens her eyes to a sleeping Roxy, fingers tangled lightly in Rose’s hair.

Rose thinks she might have dreamt hear her saying it. Light slowly fills the room, shining on Roxy. Rose thinks she might be an angel.

Roxy is awakened by a kiss, sweet and soft on her lips.

-

“You said I failed.”

Rose stirs slightly, a low whine growing on her throat. Her naked back is hot against Roxy’s skin and it’s starting to become unbearingly warm, but she doesn’t want to move.

“What?”

“When I did the ritual and you were...born I guess. It’s been a year, you know.”

Rose tries to blink away her sleepiness and rolls over to look at Roxy.

“You did. You couldn’t resurrect your mother.”

Roxy smiles softly, pressing forward to kiss her. They part after a while.

“I don’t know. Just because I didn’t get exactly what I wanted doesn’t mean I failed.”

“Because you’re happy?”

Roxy grins but it fades into a soft smile soon enough.

“Exactly.”

Rose watches her quietly, expression neutral, pupils wide despite the bright room, ears facing forward.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do with my soul when I inevitably croak.” asks Roxy, a smirk on her face.

Rose’s ears flicker slightly.

“I don’t know. I might just keep it for myself forever.”

Roxy smiles and shifts to hold her, arms tight around her waist. Rose headbutts her softly then moves down to nuzzle her, quietly. They don’t bother getting out of bed anytime soon.

 


End file.
